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News & Stories
Press Release | July 7, 2021

Marine Accounted For From Korean War (Ellis, H.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Marine Pfc. Henry E. Ellis, 22, of Roanoke, Virginia, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Sept. 29, 2020.

In late 1950, Ellis was a member of Headquarters Company, 1st Service Battalion, 1st Marine Division. He was killed in action on Nov. 30, 1950, while defending the convoy of which he was a member near Koto-ri, North Korea. His body was not immediately recovered, though many deceased Marines were later recovered and buried in the United Nations Cemetery at Koto-ri as UN forces withdrew from the area.

During Operation GLORY in 1954, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea returned the remains of just over 4,200 individuals, of which nearly 3,000 were determined to be American. During the subsequent processing and identification of these remains, none were associated with Ellis, and he was declared non-recoverable Jan. 16, 1956. At the end of the identification process, 848 unidentified remains, including one designated X-13631 Operation GLORY, were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In March 2012, historians, anthropologists, and odontologists at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a predecessor to DPAA, conducted in-depth research to support the exhumation of X-13631, narrowing down the possibility of who that unknown might be to two Marines, one of which was Ellis. On Nov. 5, 2018, DPAA disinterred X-13631 and seven other unknowns as part of the Korean War Identification Project. These remains were transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for analysis.

To identify Ellis’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Ellis’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Ellis will be buried Aug. 23, 2021 in Salisbury, North Carolina.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

To see the most up-to-date statistics on DPAA recovery efforts for those unaccounted for from the Korean War, go to the Korean War fact sheet on the DPAA website at: https://www.dpaa.mil/Resources/Fact-Sheets/Article-View/Article/569610/progress-on-korean-war-personnel-accounting/

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

Ellis’s personnel profile can be viewed at
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000003xxrPEAQ.

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Public Affairs Contact Information


Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency PAO
Washington, D.C.
2300 Defense Pentagon
Attn: Outreach and Communications
Washington, D.C. 20301-2300
Email: dpaa.ncr.oc.mbx.public-affairs@mail.mil